We're considering adding fields to lead and contact layouts in SFDC so that Sales can build lists with more transparency and better alignment with our MKTO data. However, I don't think I've ever seen this done before.

Yes, I have done this, usually for clients who specifically wish to have their telemarketing or inside sales team very clued in to the marketability of the leads. It helps with phone engagement, and assists with Marketing/Sales alignment.

You cannot however directly sync these fields with Salesforce. You have to create custom versions that pass data from the "real" versions and sync those. Can sometimes make for messy database (is an argument against it).

Yes, in my Salesforce lead / contact page layout I have a section called "Subscription" and it details things like Permission Status (GDPR/CASL compliance), Marketing Suspended (we have a 60 day option), Opt in fields yes/no, opt out, and a timestamp for when people become Legitimate Interest. I've given lead development training on these fields so that they don't violate any laws when the information is easily access in Salesforce.

*I also made it impossible for any user, even admins, to change permission status in Salesforce. It's only editable by Marketo muahahahaha.

Hi Christina, so what happens if you have a CASL/GDPR lead with "implicit" consent and a member of your sales team calls them and obtains "explicit" consent? Do they notify marketing to update the Permission Status? Compliance with the law is a big concern.

And what do you mean by Marketing Suspended (we have a 60 day option)?

GDPR does not allow for an implicit consent, but CASL does. If a customer says they want to opt in, the sales person is trained to give them the URL of our subscription center. My training is EXTREMELY explicit that it's against all internal rules and illegal to go to the subscription center and opt anyone in and that IP address is recorded, so we would know if it was done by an employee.

In my subscription center I have a checkbox that says "Suspend Marketing emails for 60 days" in an effort to retain people who might have wanted to unsusbcribe but are OK taking a break. When they check this box, they are not marketable and I have a smart campaign with a 60 day wait step - once the time is up the person becomes marketable again. This checkbox field is visible in Salesforce so that the sales team can see if someone has checked it (although they won't know how long ago it was checked) so if they are on a call with a prospect and that prospect says they never received our webinar invite (or whatever), they can say it's because they asked not to receive emails for that timespan instead of sales just blaming us for someone not receiving something.

This isn't terribly uncommon; generally rather than break everything out into separate fields I'll create a "Mailability Status" that notes whether the person is invalid, is marketing suspended, doesn't have consent, etc. However, that's typically used more often for understanding email-related campaigns. As far as practicality around Sales goes, it does help with list building, but I've also done setups where there's a bit of Visualforce noting on the record "HEY DON'T EMAIL THIS PERSON" or similar if there's a habit of directly mailing people or poor sales outreach tool use. It really depends on your company's needs.